Wonderful Dream
by Holytaxaccountantcountsmytaxes
Summary: At Teyla's first Christmas Eve on Atlantis, John visits her with a small Christmas tree to show her what this special holiday is really supposed to feel like. Very, very cheesy fluffiness. Short Oneshot, Teyla/John.


AN: My craving wish for a Christmasy-John (is that even a word?) wouldn't leave me alone, so I wrote this. And I desperately wanted to spread some Christmas love! _Also_, I needed something lighter to compensate for my last story. That's one explanation. Another explanation is that I just have a cheesy heart that's so cheesy, it's melting. And stinking. That's an explanation I don't like. And usually, I like cheese.

Warning: General **cheesiness** ahead! I heard _way_ too many Christmas songs today. Don't say I didn't warn you. Be proud I didn't make anyone 'purr', though. That's just awful. Now I could start my old "English's not my native language" speech as usual, but I'm sure you couldn't care less.

_Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate: Atlantis and I don't own Christmas. I do own the one Christmas present I already have! *proud*_

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><p>Teyla Emmagan stood in her quarters, putting away her equipment from the latest mission. It had been a total success and they now had a new ally in the fight against the Wraith. One with functioning and medium strong weapons. Not nearly as strong as theirs, of course, but it could take out one or the other Wraith, if used correctly.<p>

She was neatly folding her uniform to put into a drawer as she heard someone knock. She wondered who would visit her at this somewhere between decent and late hour, but opened the door nonetheless. She smiled. "Hello, John."

The Colonel was standing in her door frame, looking at her through a small fir tree. His mouth was blocked by twigs, but his eyes told Teyla that he, too, was smiling.

"May I come in?" he asked with a muffled voice and Teyla motioned him to enter, closing the door behind him. Slowly, he wobbled over to her bed, falling onto it gracelessly. He put the tree down and pulled a small wrapped package from his pocket, placing it on her pillow.

Teyla joined him, question in her eyes. John caught her gaze, but only shrugged innocently. The Athosian sat and watched the other search for something behind her nightstand. Obviously having found it, he set the tree up and pulled a plug from it, sticking it into a power outlet.

Small electric lights flashed up and filled the entire room with a warm golden glow. John stood to dim the ceiling lights and returned to her, childlike anticipation dancing on his face.

"What is all this?" she asked, eyeing the tree curiously. It looked strange to her, but in some way truly beautiful.

"It's called a Christmas tree," John told her and fiddled with his hands. "Christmas is a holiday on earth. It's something like a, uh..." he stopped and gently grabbed her head, turning it towards him to look into her deep brown eyes. "You could call it a celebration of love."

They looked at each other for a few moments, then Teyla took John's hand into her own and lowered them into her lap.

"Tell me more about it."

She looked back at the tree, John's gaze following her. The lights glowed almost otherworldly, seemingly carrying inside them the hopes of so many people and so many hearts. At this moment, they held the soul of the world within.

"The time before Christmas feels, especially as a child, as though you stepped into another world. A world of lights, of rich smells... There's the smell of baking cookies and cakes, of cinnamon and sugar-roasted almonds. It's the coldest time of the year, but also the warmest. It's the darkest time of the year, but also the brightest..."

He looked truly happy now, radiating an almost numbing serenity. His face was lit up and his hair seemed to stick out with energy, charging the air around him. It felt to her as though she was invading some most private part of himself. A part that would only show once in a person's lifetime, maybe twice.

"Then, when Christmas finally arrives, people give presents to the ones they love, showing them their feelings. Their true feelings they could probably never express otherwise..."

He trailed off, looking at his hands, hesitating and drawing back into himself. Teyla noticed his change in mood and put her free hand on his thigh, drawing his attention.

"That sounds wonderful," she tried.

"Yes, it sure does," was the answer, stained with bitterness. She nearly winced at this. "I think I have a bit of a, what do they say, 'romantic' view on this." He used his hands as quotation marks. "I'd never in my life confess this to anyone." A short pause. "Else."

Teyla raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry. John's answer to that was accompanied by a deep, soulful sigh. "Reality has nothing to do with this any more. It's all commercialism now. Selling more and more, buying more and more, eating more and more. Christmas has become a nearly religious celebration of money. Earth isn't a great place any more. I'm not sure if it ever has been."

He turned silent and resumed fiddling with his hands, now in his own lap. Teyla joined him in his contemplative mood. He had seemed so happy about all of this, so open and childlike. Vulnerable. In these few moments he had expressed such raw and unguarded emotion she had never seen in anyone before, least in him. John had never been without carefully placed guards around his heart. She guessed that next day, he would go back to playing his old self again, only that she felt she now held a part of his soul in her hands.

"You're not on earth any more. You can celebrate here. With us." She knew it was the right thing to say as John looked up, child again. He put his arm around her back and drew her closer. She snuggled into his chest and he stroke some lose strands out of her face.

"I have a present for you, too," he suddenly said, blushing slightly, and nodded towards the package on the pillow. "It's just a small thing, though," was added hurriedly, "and you can only open it tomorrow morning."

Teyla hummed and breathed in deeply, listening to his vibrating heartbeats. "It is perfect," she whispered as she watched the lights blur into each other, creating one golden sphere. It might not be much, she surmised, by earth standards, this one little tree, but it was beautiful to her and she started to understand why John spoke of this celebration the way he did.

"This Christmas tree.. I don't really know why we do it, but we always decorate it with electric lights or real candles and ornaments like colored balls or sometimes even candy canes."

John gave her a minute to imagine what a real Christmas tree would look like. She didn't know what a candy cane was, but didn't ask. It didn't matter at that moment.

"Normally, it's a lot bigger," he added then, but Teyla shook her head. "No. It's perfect."

She didn't want bigger and better and she certainly didn't want this selling more and buying more and eating more. She wanted this. To her, being here with John, looking at the lights and feeling this strange feeling of warmth that arose from deep inside herself was all there was in this world, and nothing else could ever be more important. Not now.

John sighed and shifted, slowly putting her flat on her back. He hovered above her shortly and stared at her, then kicked his shoes off.

"It's supposed to snow, though," he stated stubbornly and lay down beside her. "It's summer here, but normally it should snow."

He took her blanket and drew it over them, carefully tugging in Teyla's side. He kissed her forehead, slightly, then closed his eyes. She turned to face him, then closed hers, too.

Tame ending, I know, but it fit my Christmas spirit.

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><p><em>The title is, of course, from the most beautiful song "Wonderful Dream" by Melanie Thornton.<em>


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